Canada is one step closer to burying nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario

After a 14-year search, Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Township of Ignace, Ont. — roughly 200 kilometres northwest of Lake Superior — have been selected as the preferred site of Canada’s nuclear waste repository. 

The decision was announced as “a historic moment” by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a non-profit established by Ontario Power Generation, New Brunswick Power Corporation and Hydro-Québec and empowered by the federal government to create a plan for nuclear waste management. 

Canada is deeply dependent on nuclear power, the source of more than 50 per cent of the energy used in its most populous province, Ontario, and about 40 per cent in New Brunswick — the only two provinces with operating nuclear power plants. Nuclear energy produces zero carbon emissions but poses different challenges. The main one: nuclear waste can stay radioactive for 400,000 years. Right now, producers keep high-level waste in temporary storage near reactors, but this is not a sustainable solution given the lifespan of the toxic waste, which is too vulnerable to natural disasters and human threat.

As of 2020, the country’s nuclear power utilities had produced about three million fire log-sized bundles of high-level nuclear waste, largely from spent fuel pellets — enough to fill eight hockey rinks from the ice to the top of the boards — and that number grows by about 90,000 bundles each year. 

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has proposed a $26-billion underground nuclear waste disposal facility, known as a deep geological repository, to take in this waste from across the country. The search for a location began in 2010 and scrutinized 22 communities across Ontario, as the province produces and temporarily stores the bulk of Canada’s nuclear waste. The organization was clear that no decision would be made without the willingness and consent of whichever municipality and First Nation would be closest to the site. 

After more than a decade of consultations, the final decision came down to two: South Bruce, Ont., and Saugeen Ojibway Nation, on Lake Huron, and Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. 

Fred Kuntz, spokesperson for the nuclear waste organization, told The Narwhal both sites were technically suitable and accessible to safe transportation. But the reason Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation were chosen was because the organization “didn’t see a path to an agreement with Saugeen Ojibway Nation.” 

The chiefs of Saugeen Ojibway Nation did not answer calls from The Narwhal before publication time. As of Nov. 20, the nation was “not yet decided” on whether it wanted to be a willing host. 

In a statement Nov. 28, the municipality of South Bruce congratulated the nuclear waste organization, Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. South Bruce will receive $8 million for its participation in consultations and willingness to host. The nuclear waste organization told The Narwhal it is continuing discussions with Saugeen Ojibway Nation to “work out something similar,” noting it would be a confidential agreement. 

In July, the Township of Ignace confirmed its willingness to proceed in discussions to store the waste, following a community vote that saw 77 per cent of respondents vote yes. And earlier this month, members of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation — which has roughly 1,000 members, 200 of which live on a reserve 20 kilometres from the nuclear repository site — indicated their willingness to move forward with further consultations and studies. “The yes vote does not signify approval of the project; rather, it demonstrates the nation’s willingness to enter the next phase of in-depth environmental and technical assessments, to determine safety and site suitability,” the nation said in a Nov. 18 press release. 

In a statement Thursday, Wabigoon Lake Chief Clayton Wetelainen said his nation “views our role as the potential host for Canada’s used nuclear fuel as one of the most important responsibilities of our time.”

“We cannot ignore this challenge and allow it to become a burden for future generations,” Wetelainen said in the release. “Our membership spoke with a clear voice in our willingness decision that we have the bravery and courage to continue to the next phase of this project.”

For the repository to be built, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization will have to embark on what Wabigoon Lake describes as “the largest and most strenuous impact assessment in Canadian history” to ensure the project poses minimal human and environmental harm. The organization will have to get the green light from various federal agencies, including the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The organization will also have to pass Waabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation’s own regulatory assessment and approval process, which “asserts our Sovereign rights while protecting our Anishinaabe Values and Laws,” Chief Wetelainen’s statement said.

Over the years, there has been broad scientific consensus that the best way to dispose of nuclear waste is to bury it far underground. It has to be placed in rock that is stable and won’t shift for 400,000 years — the length of time the Nuclear Waste Management Organization believes the waste would remain radioactive enough to be harmful if it leaked — and remain undisturbed by future generations. 

If the organization gets the green light from the nation, Ignace and both federal bodies, construction will likely begin in the 2030s. The goal is to have the site open in the early 2040s, the organization told The Narwhal.

 — With files from Emma McIntosh

Updated Nov. 28, 2024, at 7:20 p.m. ET. This story has been updated to remove a statement about the First Nation’s regulatory mechanisms for the project.